Mass Killer Facing Execution Loses Appeal

Monday

Oct 8, 2012 at 11:10 PM

A convicted mass killer scheduled for execution next week after spending 34 years on death row lost an appeal Monday in Florida's highest court, but his lawyer plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A convicted mass killer scheduled for execution next week after spending 34 years on death row lost an appeal Monday in Florida's highest court, but his lawyer plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawyer, Christopher Handman, also asked the state Supreme Court to stay the scheduled Oct. 16 execution of 64-year-old John Errol Ferguson to provide more time for a separate case challenging Gov. Rick Scott's finding that his client is competent to be executed.

Ferguson was convicted of killing eight people in South Florida. Six victims died in 1977 in a drug related, execution-style mass killing in Carol City.

He also was convicted of killing two Hialeah teenagers on their way to a church meeting in 1978.

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